State Qualifier and State Championship Meets

Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2012 by Perry King

Wortner Medals and King Finishes 9th in Steeplechase at States

The final segment of the 2012 track season for the Eagles played out with Brendan Wortner and Sarah King running at the State Championship meet in the steeplechase in a steady rain. This time it was more than just their feet that got wet, but the meet at Cicero - North Syracuse on Saturday, June 9th resulted in a 6th place finish medal for Brendan Wortner in the 3000m steeplechase Division 2 group and a 9th place for Sarah King.

The trip to States was set up by a group of strong runs at the State Qualifier meet at White Plains on Friday, June 1. Wortner was seeded number one and had already run a qualifying time, as had Bronxville's Dayton Flannery, so the two runners basically needed just to finish in the top two spots to go to States. Wortner ran with his longtime rival for most of the race before finishing 2nd in a time of 9:49.90. Flannery's winning time was 5 seconds better, and it resulted in their being placed in separate heats at States.

Sarah King was seeded number one going into the 2000m steeplechase, while Shanna Yue was running her second steeplechase and was seeded 9th. With only one spot at States available, King was again tested by the number two seed Morgan Nobles of Bronxville and was trailing by about 10 meters going into the last lap. Nobles had difficulties in the water jump section, however, and King powered by to win the race and States berth in a time of 7:38.44. Yue finished 10th with a PR of 8:07.82.

At States after a gorgeous first day of action on Friday June 8th, the rain settled in overnight and made Saturday's action pretty messy. King had the added burden of being given an incorrect race assignment by meet officials that required a frantic scramble to get a last minute okay to run in another heat. Though a bit frazzled and drenched, she ran at her expected level of the 9th seed and finished with a time almost exactly the same as at the State Qualifiers at 7:38.94, to take 9th in the 2000m steeplechase for Division 2.

Wortner was assigned to the less fast of the two boys heats of the 3000m steeplechase while Bronxville's Flannery was running in the fast heat, and since the two were battling for one of the final medals in Division 2, placement was important. Running first, the 7th seed Wortner did what he needed to do while running to a season's best 9:45.24 while finishing 3rd of the Division 2 runners in his mixed heat. The fast heat turned out to too tough for some of the Division 2 runners like 6th-seeded Flannery, who this time finished 13 seconds behind Wortner, and despite some tension, the Eagle runner was glad to see only three runners from his division best his time, giving him 6th place and a trip to the podium.